Sarna News

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In 2795, following the appointment of Sandol Quinn as regent to Ilsa Liao, the Capellan Confederation Armed Forces launched an invasion of the Federated Suns intended to capture the politically-significant Chesterton system. Planned by Quinn, the operation was intended to take advantage of the AFFS' continuing focus on trying to resist the massive Draconis Combine invasion of the Federated Suns, which stood poised to capture New Avalon itself. Quinn's plan involved encircling Chesterton by taking the systems around it, using mercenary units for the initial invasions - predominantly or exclusively former Star League Defense Force commands that had been recruited by the Confederation - and following up with CCAF line regiments to reinforce the assault and then secure the captured worlds. Whilst launching one or two planetary invasions aimed at systems around Chesterton, Quinn also had the CCAF copy tactics used by the Combine so effectively, leapfrogging over border systems to capture a number of systems further inside the Federated Suns to add pressure to the AFFS. Quinn's strategy worked well for several years; by 2797 the CCAF had occupied Ogilvie, as well the Branzoll, Carmacks, Salem, Sekulmun and Victoria, creating Capellan "islands" within the borders of the Federated Suns that forced the AFFS to spread it's already-stretched border forces even more thinly at a critical time.[11]

Quinn never managed to secure Chesterton, however; unwilling to launch a mass assault led by strategic weapons that would have had devastating effects on the planet and its population, Quinn attempted to negotiate Chesterton's surrender, but the dug-in AFFS forces were absolutely fanatical in their determination to resist, and Chesterton was self-sustaining, incapable of simply being blockaded into submission, even if the CCAF had sufficient WarShips available to blockade the system. With the CCAF clashing with the Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery on a number of former Terran Hegemony worlds, Quinn withdrew his forces from the majority of the isolated worlds in 2800.[41]